67 Facts About Catherine Tate

Catherine Tate was born on Catherine Jane Ford, 5 December 1969 and is an English actress, comedian and writer.

Catherine Tate has won numerous awards for her work on the BBC sketch comedy series The Catherine Tate Show, as well as being nominated for an International Emmy Award and seven BAFTAs.

Catherine Tate played the role of Miss Sarah Postern in the BBC One sitcom Big School and voiced Magica De Spell in the Disney Channel and Disney XD animated series DuckTales.

Catherine Tate has appeared in films, including Love and Other Disasters, Mrs Ratcliffe's Revolution, Gulliver's Travels, Monte Carlo, and SuperBob.

Catherine Tate was born in Bloomsbury, London, on 5 December 1969 and was raised in the Brunswick Centre.

Tate has said that the character of Margaret in The Catherine Tate Show, who shrieks at the slightest of disturbances, is based largely on her mother.

Catherine Tate never knew her father as he left very early on in her life and, consequently, she was brought up in a female-dominated environment, being cared for by her mother, grandmother, and godparents.

Catherine Tate attended St Joseph's Roman Catholic Primary School in Holborn, and Notre Dame High School, a convent secondary school for girls in Southwark.

Catherine Tate then tried for four years to get a place in the Central School of Speech and Drama, succeeding on her fourth attempt.

Catherine Tate chose her new surname after the character of Jessica Tate, played by Katherine Helmond, from the American sitcom television series Soap.

From 1988 to 1990 Catherine Tate toured with the National Youth Theatre production of Blood Wedding, which starred Daniel Craig and Jessica Hynes.

Catherine Tate then worked at the Royal National Theatre, playing small roles in The Way of the World and The Prince's Play.

Catherine Tate performed with the Royal Shakespeare Company during its 10-month tour across the UK, Australia and the US with Lee Hall's adaptation of The Servant of Two Masters.

Catherine Tate's television acting career began with roles in serial dramas such as The Bill and London's Burning.

Catherine Tate's debut happened in an episode of the sitcom Surgical Spirit in 1991.

Catherine Tate was offered an audition for the part by the casting director who owned a sandwich shop Tate used to go in and knew she was about to go to drama college.

Catherine Tate became pregnant before filming the first series and had to wear a lot of baggy clothes as Angela.

Catherine Tate was approached at a post-show party at the Edinburgh Festival by then-BBC controller of comedy Geoffrey Perkins, who encouraged Catherine Tate to develop her character ideas, especially to push the boundaries with her teenage character Lauren Cooper.

Tate won a British Comedy Award for Best Comedy Newcomer for her work on the first series of The Catherine Tate Show, and with the first series becoming a success, in March 2005, Tate made a guest appearance during the BBC's Red Nose Day as the character of Lauren, alongside boy band McFly, which gained her further exposure.

In November 2005 Catherine Tate appeared in another charity sketch as part of the BBC's annual Children in Need telethon.

The segment was a crossover between EastEnders and The Catherine Tate Show, featuring EastEnders characters Peggy Mitchell, Little Mo Mitchell and Stacey Slater, whilst Tate appeared as Lauren.

In January 2005, Catherine Tate appeared as Mitzi Kosinki in the ITV adaptation of Agatha Christie's novel A Murder Is Announced, starring Geraldine McEwan as Miss Marple.

Towards the end of the year, Catherine Tate played the part of Kate in the unaired pilot episode of Lee Mack's sitcom Not Going Out and Mrs Chadband in an episode of the BBC television adaptation of Bleak House.

Catherine Tate returned to the stage for the first time since working with the Royal Shakespeare Company, to play a role in the original West End production of Some Girl, alongside Sara Powell, Lesley Manville, Saffron Burrows and Friends star David Schwimmer.

Catherine Tate immediately denied the rumours, explaining that she was joking about her attempts to act "cool" around Schwimmer, whom she described as "a very funny, personable man, and easy to get along with".

The third series of The Catherine Tate Show aired in 2006, going on to win the National Television Award for most popular comedy as voted for by the public, and Tate's catchphrase "bovvered", used by her character Lauren Cooper, became so influential in popular culture that it was named Word of the Year and was even poised to enter the Oxford English Dictionary.

Catherine Tate played the role of Donna Noble in Doctor Who, a temp worker from Chiswick who suddenly appears in the TARDIS at the end of the episode "Doomsday".

Catherine Tate later appeared in the films Mrs Ratcliffe's Revolution, in which she played the title character opposite Iain Glen, and Love and Other Disasters.

Catherine Tate appeared as Nan in an episode of Deal or No Deal, hosted by Noel Edmonds.

Catherine Tate has been nominated for four BAFTA Awards for her work on The Catherine Tate Show, including Best Comedy Performance.

Catherine Tate later filmed a one-off special episode which aired on Christmas Day 2007.

In summer 2008, Catherine Tate starred as Michelle, a promiscuous mathematics teacher, in David Eldridge's Under the Blue Sky at the Duke of York's Theatre, alongside Francesca Annis and Nigel Lindsay.

Catherine Tate returned to the stage the next day and performed preview shows with the aid of a crutch.

At the 2008 TV Quick Awards and SFX Awards, Catherine Tate was voted best actress for her dramatic Doctor Who performance.

Catherine Tate earned a nomination at the 14th National Television Awards.

Later that day, Nan's Christmas Carol premiered, a one-off special spin-off to The Catherine Tate Show focused on Nan, who gets visited by three ghosts in her council flat.

In March 2010, Catherine Tate took part in Channel 4's Comedy Gala, a benefit show held in aid of Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital, filmed live at the O2 Arena in London.

Catherine Tate went on to make her directorial debut in Sky One's series of short comedy films called Little Crackers.

The autobiographical short film My First Nativity, written by and starring Tate as her mother Josephine, showed the young Catherine performing an impression of Gary Glitter in her school nativity play.

On Christmas Day 2010 Catherine Tate appeared as Queen Isabelle of Lilliput in the film adaptation of Gulliver's Travels starring Jack Black in the title role.

Catherine Tate then starred opposite Selena Gomez in another American comedy film, Monte Carlo.

In December, she presented Channel 4's two-hour documentary Catherine Tate: Laughing at the Noughties, in which she met Carr, Walliams, Noel Fielding, Rob Brydon and her Doctor Who co-star David Tennant to discuss the comedy highlights of the 2000s.

From May to September 2011, Catherine Tate appeared alongside Tennant in the Shakespeare comedy Much Ado About Nothing at the Wyndham's Theatre.

Catherine Tate guest starred in the two-part seventh season finale of the American mockumentary sitcom The Office, which aired on 19 May 2011.

Catherine Tate portrayed Nellie Bertram, who was interviewed for the Regional Manager position of the Dunder Mifflin Scranton branch, the position that Michael Scott held for the majority of the series.

Catherine Tate was reportedly the top choice to replace Carell, but was unable to join the filming, due to her commitment to Much Ado About Nothing.

However, in January 2012 Catherine Tate returned to The Office as a series regular for the second half of season eight, reprising her role as Nellie, who was hired as a "misguided special projects manager".

Catherine Tate continued in the role for the ninth and final season.

Coincidentally, Catherine Tate played Kate in the original 2005 pilot of the show, which was never broadcast.

Catherine Tate later appeared as a nun alongside Walliams as Lou Todd in a Red Nose Day 2015 sketch, featuring Stephen Hawking in the Andy Pipkin role.

Catherine Tate portrayed both Eva Braun and Edith Piaf in the pilot episode of the Sky Arts sketch show Psychobitches.

Catherine Tate's character was Sara Jane Moore, a woman who attempted to assassinate US President Gerald Ford.

Catherine Tate went on to play alongside Mark Gatiss and Judi Dench in The Vote, a James Graham play set in a fictitious London polling station, which was broadcast live on More4 on election night 2015.

In spring 2016, Catherine Tate appeared as fashion designer Myrna in another musical comedy, Miss Atomic Bomb, at the St James Theatre.

Benjamin McDonald, writing in Gay Times, praised Catherine Tate's performance, saying she "proves she has the strong vocal ability to match her impeccable comic timing".

On New Year's Day 2016, Catherine Tate played the role of hand model Sapphire Diamond in the television adaptation of David Walliams's children's book Billionaire Boy.

Catherine Tate appeared in Bruce's Hall of Fame with Alexander Armstrong the following day with a musical tribute to her childhood hero Victoria Wood, calling her the first woman she had seen being funny on television.

Catherine Tate then chose Wood as her inspirational female figure when promoting Leading Lady Parts, a short film inspired by the Time's Up movement and starring Tate as a casting director auditioning several A-list actresses for a leading lady role.

In October 2016, Tate began touring British theatres with The Catherine Tate Show Live, guest starring Brett Goldstein and her long-time collaborators Mathew Horne and Niky Wardley.

Catherine Tate later apologised after it was pointed out the event was going out live.

Catherine Tate co-wrote the series with Niky Wardley and Alex Carter and co-directed all six episodes with James Kayler.

In May 2023, Catherine Tate was the UK's jury spokesperson in the final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2023, in which she announced the UK's jury points directly from the Liverpool Arena, where the event was held.

Catherine Tate was formerly in a relationship with stage manager Twig Clark, with whom she has a daughter, who was born in January 2003.

Catherine Tate has been married to American screenwriter Jeff Gutheim since at least 2018.

Catherine Tate is a patron of the Laura Crane Youth Cancer Trust, supporting the charity since 2006.

Since 2005, Catherine Tate has been a frequent supporter of two BBC telethon charities, Children in Need and Comic Relief.

Catherine Tate appeared as Lauren Cooper from The Catherine Tate Show live on stage during the Red Nose Day 2005 and 2017 events, and as Nan in 2009.